Part 13

If it were possible for trees to have negative characters, the pignut would be eminently negative. In fact, its distinguishing characteristic is that it has no one distinctive feature to identify it in winter, as all the other hickories have. Its bark is not wavy like the mockernut, and it does not shag like the shagbark; its buds are not yellow like the bitternut, nor large like the mockernut, nor has it black outer scales like the shagbark; its nuts are neither bitter nor sweet,—and yet these very negative qualities are a sure means of identification. One knows the pignut in much the same way that David Harum knew he had bought a horse, “the only thing to determine that fact was that it wa’n’t nothin’ else.” All praise, however, to the outline of the pignut against a winter sky. The tracery of its twigs and branches is delicate and graceful, and it looks as if it were drawn with the blackest India ink. Michaux calls the pignut one of the largest trees in the United States, and it certainly compares well with the three other native hickories in its general bearing, for it is as stately and beautiful in outline as they, in spite of its negative characteristics in details.

The wood is like that of other hickories and it is used for the same purposes. The nuts vary much in shape and size. Some of them are oval, others broader than they are long, others perfectly round, and the sizes vary as much as the shapes. The nuts are not marketable, although they are not unpleasant to the taste and afford squirrels a supply of food for winter.

The specific name, glabra (smooth), refers to the shoots and leaves, which are smoother than those of other hickories.

The range of the pignut is the same as that of other members of the genus; it is found throughout New England and in the West and South.

Hicoria glabra

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CHAPTER VI

THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM, AND HORNBEAM

Betula papyrifera

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Chapter VI

THE BIRCHES, HOP HORNBEAM, AND HORNBEAM

Family Betulaceæ

The birches are a family of exceedingly graceful and attractive trees, and charm us quite as much in winter by the color of their stems and the delicacy of their twigs, as they do in summer by the fresh green of their foliage. Like other trees, birches vary in appearance according to the place where they grow. If they are shaded by other trees in the woods their trunks are tapering and tall and free from branches, but when they grow in open fields and the lateral branches develop, their general outline is bushy and far less attractive; unlike other trees, birches are improved by not having full development.

The birch has been known from the earliest ages, and it is found in Europe, Asia, and North America.

There are distinguishing characteristics in the details of buds and stems, but the color and texture of the bark on the trunk and branches of the different species are the most obvious and certain means of identification in winter.

There are in all six native species in New England, and one from Europe which is planted in our parks and gardens.

Betula papyrifera]

A large, graceful tree, 60 to 75 feet high, with wonderfully white bark splitting into thin, tough layers. Branches thicker, buds larger, catkins larger than those of other birches, and the upper part of the twigs is hairy. The buds are sticky and greener inside than those of other birches,—less silvery and soft. The leaf-scars are alternate.

Betula populifolia

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In winter, as at every other season of the year, few trees surpass the canoe birch for beauty and delicacy. No other tree has a bark so shiningly white, and even the snow is unable to dim its purity. We usually think of this tree as being fragile and delicate, especially when we recall it as it grows along the edge of woodlands where the shade of other trees has forced it to grow slender and tall in reaching for the light. The canoe birch is really a large tree, however, and often grows to an enormous size among the northern hills where it seems to thrive best. The feminine characteristics associated with this tree in our minds—“Most beautiful of forest trees, the Lady of the Woods,” etc.—receive a curious shock when we come suddenly upon a huge old birch growing in a clearing in the woods, for all the world like a middle aged and corpulent matron among the younger trees.

The wood of the canoe birch is light, but it is hard and strong. It is used for making shoe lasts and shoe pegs, spools, wood pulp, and for fuel. The Indians use it for making sledges, paddles, the frames of snowshoes, and the handles of hatchets. They also use the bark for making canoes, wigwams, and baskets, and they make a drink from the sap of the tree.

The generic name, Betula, probably comes from the Celtic name for the birch, betu, or it may possibly have come from the Latin batuere, in reference to the birch rods with which the Roman lictors drove back the crowds of people. The specific name, papyrifera, refers to the paper-like bark which peels off in thin lateral strips.

This birch is found in the mountains of New England and generally throughout the Northern and Northwestern States.

Betula populifolia]

A small, slender tree, 15 to 30 feet high, with an erect trunk, It grows in poor soil and is found growing commonly along sandy roadsides. Several shoots spring from the trunk near the ground. Bark close fitting, with a chalky white surface. Black triangular spaces below each branch. The ends of the twigs are very rough to the touch. Alternate leaf-scars.

This little birch is perhaps the least interesting member of a most attractive family. It is found commonly growing along the sandy banks of country roads and in waste, barren places where pitch pines and blueberry bushes and scrub oaks are found. It is invariably associated with sterility in our minds, and seems to demand nothing of the soil on which it grows, adapting itself immediately to its surroundings, and thriving where other trees would die.